Editing Ethnicity (section)

==Terminology==
The term ''[[wikt:ethnic|ethnic]]'' is ultimately derived from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{tlit|grc|ethnos}}, through its adjectival form {{tlit|grc|ethnikos}},<ref name="perseus">[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29qniko%2Fs ἐθνικός] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225035201/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De)qniko%2Fs |date=25 February 2021 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> loaned into [[Latin]] as {{lang|la|ethnicus}}. The inherited English language term for this concept is ''[[wikt:folk|folk]]'', used alongside the latinate ''[[wikt:people|people]]'' since the [[late Middle English]] period.

In [[Early Modern English]] and until the mid-19th century, ''ethnic'' was used to mean [[wikt:heathen|heathen]] or [[wikt:pagan|pagan]] (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian [[ecumene]]), as the [[Septuagint]] used {{tlit|grc|ta ethne}} 'the nations' to translate the Hebrew ''[[goyim]]'' "the foreign nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews".<ref>ThiE. Tonkin, M. McDonald and M. Chapman, ''History and Ethnicity'' (London 1989), pp. 11–17 (quoted in J. Hutchinson & A.D. Smith (eds.), ''Oxford readers: Ethnicity'' (Oxford 1996), pp. 18–24)</ref> The Greek term in [[Archaic Greece|early antiquity]] ([[Homeric Greek]]) could refer to any large group, a ''host'' of men, a ''band'' of comrades as well as a ''swarm'' or ''flock'' of animals. In [[Classical Greek]], the word took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group", mostly translated as "[[:wikt:nation|nation]], tribe, a unique people group"; only in [[Hellenistic Greek]] did the term tend to become further narrowed to refer to "foreign" or "[[barbarians|barbarous]]" nations in particular (whence the later meaning "heathen, pagan").<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29%2Fqnos ἔθνος] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224153805/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De)%2Fqnos |date=24 February 2021 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref>

In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a tribe, race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", and in American English "tribal, racial, cultural or national [[minority group]]" arises in the 1930s to 1940s,<ref>'' Oxford English Dictionary'' Second edition, online version as of 2008-01-12, "ethnic, a. and n.". Cites Sir [[Daniel Wilson (academic)|Daniel Wilson]], ''The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland 1851'' (1863) and [[Julian Sorell Huxley|Huxley]] & [[Alfred Cort Haddon|Haddon]] (1935), ''We Europeans'', pp. 136,181</ref> serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological [[racism]]. The abstract ''ethnicity'' had been used as a stand-in for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character" (first recorded 1953).

The term ''ethnic group'' was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972.<ref>Cohen, Ronald. (1978) "Ethnicity: Problem and Focus in Anthropology", ''Annu. Rev. Anthropol''. 1978. 7:379–403; Glazer, Nathan and [[Daniel P. Moynihan]] (1975) ''Ethnicity{{snd}}Theory and Experience'', Cambridge, Massachusetts [[Harvard University Press]].
The modern usage definition of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' is:
{{blockquote|''a[djective]''
:...
:2.a. About race; peculiar to a specific tribe, race or nation; ethnological. Also, about or having common tribal, racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics, esp. designating a racial or other group within a larger system; hence (U.S. colloq.), foreign, exotic.
:b ''ethnic minority (group)'', a group of people differentiated from the majority of the community by racial origin or cultural background, and usu. claiming or enjoying official recognition of their group identity. Also ''attrib''.
''n[oun]''
:...
:3 A member of an ethnic group or minority. ''Equatorians''}}
(Oxford English Dictionary Second edition, online version as of 2008-01-12, s.v. "ethnic, a. and n.")
</ref> Depending on context, the term [[nationality]] may be used either synonymously with ethnicity or synonymously with [[citizenship]] (in a sovereign state). The process that results in emergence of an ethnicity is called [[ethnogenesis]], a term in use in [[ethnological]] literature since about 1950. The term may also be used with the connotation of something unique and unusually [[exoticism|exotic]] (cf. "an ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established.

Depending on which source of [[group identity]] is emphasized to define membership, the following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified:
* [[Ethnolinguistic group|Ethno-linguistic]], emphasizing shared [[language]], [[dialect]] (and possibly [[Writing system|script]]){{snd}}example: [[French Canadians]]
* [[Ethnonational group|Ethno-national]], emphasizing a shared [[polity]] or sense of [[national identity]]{{snd}}example: [[Austrians]]
* [[Racial group|Ethno-racial]], emphasizing shared physical appearance based on phenotype {{snd}}example: [[African Americans]]
* [[Regionalism (politics)|Ethno-regional]], emphasizing a distinct local sense of belonging stemming from relative geographic isolation{{snd}}example: [[South Island nationalism|South Islanders]] of [[New Zealand]]
* [[Ethno-religious]], emphasizing shared affiliation with a particular religion, denomination or sect{{snd}}example: [[Mormons]], [[Sikhs]]
* Ethno-cultural, emphasizing shared [[culture]] or [[tradition]], often overlapping with other forms of ethnicity{{snd}}example: [[Itinerant groups in Europe|Travellers]]

In many cases, more than one aspect determines membership: for instance, [[Armenians|Armenian]] ethnicity can be defined by [[Armenia]]n citizenship, having Armenian heritage, native use of the [[Armenian language]], or membership of the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]].